Wholesale liquidation of independent cultural activities of the Jewish minority in Lithuania is proceeding rapidly, the sovietized Lithuanian press reveals. While a number of Jews have been appointed to leading positions, the entire property of Jewish cultural institutions has been confiscated for the benefit of Communist organizations.
The famous Abraham Napu library in Kaunas, existing for nearly a century and containing the rarest Hebrew and Yiddish editions, has been turned over to the Komsomol, Communist youth organization, and renamed for the Communist Greifenburg, who was executed in 1926. Books viewed as undesirable by the regime were removed and replaced by Soviet Yiddish literature. Of the old stock, only the works of Mendele, I.L. Peretz and Sholom Aleichen were retained.
The property of the Kaunes Jewish Community was turned over to the Communist Party. Belongings of the Lithuanian Tarbuth (Hebrew education system) were given to the Education Commissariat. Property of the Union of Jewish Physicians was turned over to the Organization of Medical Workers in Lithuania.
The independent Jewish press has been replaced by two Yiddish dailies in Kaunas and Wilno. On the other hand. I. Shaus, former staff member of the labor Zionist newspaper Dos Wort, has been appointed director of the Soviet Lithuanian Telegraphic Agency.
Dr. L. Kagan, Health Minister in the provisional government, has resigned and has been appointed director of the Government tuberculosis hospital.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
